James O'Brien dissects Johnson's 'ludicrous' final speech
6 September 2022, 12:45
James O'Brien dissects Boris Johnson's final speech
LBC's James O'Brien dissects Boris Johnson's "ludicrous" final speech - which includes space hoppers, comparing himself to a booster rocket, and the Tories to his feuding pets.
In his colourful final speech, Johnson compared himself to a booster rocket "gently re-entering the atmosphere" and also ancient Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was called out of retirement to save his people during a time of crisis.
In a less flattering comparison, he likened the Conservative Party to his feuding pets, Dilyn the dog and Larry the cat.
He also invoked space hoppers, telling the media he now experiences "unemployment down to lows not seen since I was about 10 years old and bouncing around on a space hopper."
James reflected on the speech, questioning what Johnson meant by his line: "The baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race.
"They changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now."
Read more: This is it folks: Boris jibes that Tories changed the rules in final speech as Prime Minister
He posited that Johnson was referring to trying to change the rules to let their "crony off the hook [and] rip up the entire Parliamentary standards book after Owen Paterson broke it."
James commented that Johnson then proceeded to "embark upon the sort of speech you'd expect a man who'd been Prime Minister for ten years and delivered untold riches and benefits to his county...rather than a man who's been Prime Minister for three years and presided over calumny after catastrophe after disaster."
James dismissed the former PM's claim that he fixed social care and observed, "He managed to say thank you to his dog but not to his wife, that seems to me to be the mark of the man."
Johnson also made some "fairly questionable claims" about the police, James said: "13,790 more police on the streets, I' sure that bit's true. But this is a party that between 2010 and 2019, to the best of my knowledge, got rid of about 20,500 police officers.
"So he's boasting about a shortfall, when his party came into office to when he left office, he's boasting about a shortfall of 12,000 officers. There are 12,000 fewer police officers now to when the Conservatives came into power in 2010.
"50,000 nurses by the end of this Parliament? That's 50,000 new nurses. It's gone up just shy of 24,000 since he came into office but that's not even halfway to the figure that's needed."
James questioned whether the Government would manage to find over 26,000 new nurses by 2024, adding, "How many of them will be coming from overseas? Which is absolutely fine by me but an awful lot of people who voted for Boris Johnson felt there were too many foreign people working in the NHS."
Boris Johnson had also pledged 6,000 more GPs by 2025.
"That's gone up by 738 since the end of 2019, and how many of them are full time or part-time I do not know."
Famously, the former Prime Minister promised 40 entirely new hospitals would be built by the end of the decade and James revealed that three out of 40 would be brand new if they get built.
"What the hell he's talking about when he's still boasting about 40 new hospitals is beyond me."
